


The TARDIS Lies for the Good of All Involved

by BuzzCat



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, the TARDIS is meddlesome but she does it with good intentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 08:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12767133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuzzCat/pseuds/BuzzCat
Summary: Donna stared at the stick in her hand. All this alien tech, she was still reduced to a blue pee stick to answer one of the most important questions of her life. She stared at the stick, willing it to just have one line. One line meant she wasn’t pregnant. One line meant she didn’t have to tell the Doctor they’d managed species interbreeding. One line meant her life wasn’t changed forever.





	The TARDIS Lies for the Good of All Involved

Donna stared at the stick in her hand. All this alien tech, she was still reduced to a blue pee stick to answer one of the most important questions of her life. She stared at the stick, willing it to just have one line. One line meant she wasn’t pregnant. One line meant she didn’t have to tell the Doctor they’d managed species interbreeding. One line meant her life wasn’t changed forever. She squeezed her eyes shut and begged the TARDIS to just show her one line (though what the TARDIS could do about it, she had no idea). Donna opened her eyes.

There was one line.

Donna let out a breath and threw the stick away. She was fine. Everything was fine.

When she started throwing up, Donna put it down to alien food messing up her stomach. She’d never had a problem before, but then again, you never knew what you were in for when the food was purple and humming.

When her breasts were tender and she was more tired than normal, Donna put it down to excessive running in the last couple weeks and made sure the Doctor stayed well clear of her breasts the next time he pulled her into his bed.

When her favorite pants suddenly didn’t button, Donna once again ended up in the bathroom, eying the box of pregnancy tests warily. Maybe they were faulty. She could explain a lot of things away, but at a certain point copious amounts of sex and a number of suspicious symptoms started to add up. Donna pulled a test out of the box, tapping her fingernail against it as she thought. According to the TARDIS library, her symptoms were of months pregnant, not weeks. And the last test had been negative. She specifically remembered she’d begged the universe, God, even the TARDIS—

And it all clicked into place. The TARDIS could get in her head, translate languages and written text. If she could do that—

Donna’s thoughts were cut off by the most alien thing of all: a fluttering in her belly. Nothing strong or really even terribly noticeable, but there. She never would have even realized it if she hadn’t been thinking about it. Donna slid a hand over her belly, over the bump she had thought was too many chocolate digestives, but was something else entirely. She was pregnant. There was a half-human half-alien baby in her belly, and it had just moved.

Donna had a bone to pick with the TARDIS.

The next night, when the Doctor was tinkering in another part of the ship, Donna crept out of bed down to the center console. She walked right up and poked the center pillar: “What the bleeding hell? You can’t just lie to me about something like that! I wanted the truth, not just what I wanted! You can’t just go meddling in people’s lives like that, telling them they’re not pregnant when they _very much_ are, it’s not nice. It’s downright sneaky, and deceptive, and mean.”

The TARDIS made a sad whirring noise. Donna sighed,

“I know you were trying to help, dear. But this is one of those things I want to know the truth of, not whatever you and your well-meaning circuits can manufacture for me.” She sat down on the bench near the console, head in her hands as she tried to think. Donna sat silently before looking up at the arched ceiling,

“Just don’t tell him yet, please. I want some time to think before I go having that conversation with Time Boy himself.”

The TARDIS made a humming noise, which Donna took as an agreement.

The next week was an interesting one. Now that Donna knew she was pregnant, she started to reevaluate just what kind of lifestyle she led. Between the running, the high probability of capture or death, and the constant encounter with dubious alien substances, Donna found herself quickly making up excuses to not leave the TARDIS. This did not go unnoticed by the Doctor. Nor did the addition of leafy greens to every meal.

When Donna refused to go visit the Planet of the Hats on the grounds of “what if it’s dangerous? There could be mutant hatpins or something,” the Doctor knew there was subterfuge afoot,

“Donna, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just don’t want to get stabbed to death by eight-foot hatpins and thrown into a moth-eaten hatbox,” she said, staying firmly ensconced at the sink washing dishes. The soapy water was splashing everywhere and soaking her shirt, making it stick to her growing baby bump. She prayed to the TARDIS (worked before, didn’t it?) that the Doctor wouldn’t notice.

“Donna, you haven’t left the TARDIS in a week. You’re turning down exploring an alien planet to do the washing up. What’s wrong? Are you injured?”

Donna sighed. The concern in his voice was too much. It had been a week. She wasn’t exactly adjusted to the idea of becoming someone’s mum, but she had to tell him. Her grace period was over.

She turned away from the sink, folding her arms across her body. Despite her week, she still hadn’t quite worked out how to break the news to him. She walked over to him, standing right up against him,

“Hug me, you daft Martian.” Thoroughly confused and not concerned by half, he wrapped Donna in his arms. She snuggled in closer, hugging him back.

“Donna—“

“Shush. I’m not injured or anything. I just, I need this. Let me have this, and then we’ll talk,” Donna said into his chest. Slightly unnerved, the Doctor wisely didn’t push the issue but held tight. Perhaps if he hadn’t been focused on what could possibly be wrong, he would have noticed the slight bump that was pressed against his midsection.

When at last Donna stepped back, the Doctor caught both her hands in his, “Donna, please. Talk to me.” He sounded almost scared. She held his hands tight. There was no way of sugarcoating it.

“I’m pregnant.”

Whatever the Doctor had been expecting, it wasn’t that.

“You’re what now?”

“Pregnant. With child. Well, with half-alien child, but—“

“ _My_ child?”

Donna smacked his arm, “Of course your child, you tosser!”

“Ow!”

“What, you think I just shag my way across the galaxy? Throw myself at any man I meet? Of all the—“

“Donna, Donna. I believe you that it’s mine. It’s just, the odds of human and Time Lord biology mixing well enough to procreate…the odds aren’t good,” he said sadly.

“What are you saying?” Donna asked, suddenly fearful. She _knew_ she should have snuck down to sick bay to try to run a check-up on herself. The Doctor looked at her sadly, his expression that of a man well and truly shattered.

“What I’m saying…Donna, there’s an astronomical chance, almost a guarantee, of miscarriage. We really aren’t in the clear for this, not for months.”

“How many months?”

“At least three, possibly four,” he said dejectedly, “Donna, I’m so sorry.”

“About the odds, or that it happened at all?” she asked, not looking up at him.

“About the odds. Donna, if I…if we…” she watched him struggle to speak and saw what looked like tears starting to form in his eyes, “Donna, having a child with you would make me happier than I have any right to be. It would…” he trailed off when he saw Donna was crying. He reached out to hug her, but she stepped back, wiping the tears from her face. To the Doctor’s shock, she started laughing,

“You can stop that, before I properly become a waterworks fountain. And stop looking so pathetic. I’m five months pregnant, so I think it’s safe to say we’re in the clear.”

The Doctor stared at her. He opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, “How—how far along?”

“Five months,” she said, happy tears streaming down her face.

“Five months?” he asked in disbelief, his own tears starting to fall.

“Five months. You can feel the bump and everything.” No sooner had she said that than his hands zoomed to her belly. Sure enough, the soft body he thought knew so perfectly had a new feel to it, a more solid firmness where their child lay. The Doctor let out a harsh laugh of disbelief. He looked at Donna and saw the love for him and for their baby shining from her eyes. He kissed her, his mouth plundering hers. Both were crying and neither could believe it. By sheer happenstance and against all odds, they were five months pregnant. The Doctor frowned and pulled back from the kiss,

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he asked. Donna laughed and slung her arms around his shoulders,

“Thank your daft time machine for that!” When she explained what happened, the Doctor shook his head,

“Meddlesome old girl.”

“She was just trying to help! Besides, if I’d known and told you earlier, you would have freaked and if I’d known the odds earlier, I would have freaked, and it would have been a meltdown all around. She saved us from ourselves,” Donna patted the wall beside her, “Thanks dear.”

The TARDIS made a happy humming noise.

The Doctor reached around Donna and hugged her so that her back was to his front, allowing him to press both hands to the swell of her stomach,

“We’re having a baby,” the Doctor said happily. Donna covered his hands with hers,

“Yeah. We are.”


End file.
